Custom Movie Action Figures delight parents, embarrass their children

What you see above isn’t the product of some Photoshop trickery. Well, maybe it is; but only in the sense that the ubiquitous image manipulation program that has been used to make the impossible real – at least in photos – was probably used to create the artwork for the packaging.

What you see is real: Indiana Jones is available in “original” packaging as a member of the G.I. Joe team. But the back shows other “available” figures such as Jason from the Friday the 13th movies, Snake Plisskin, Freddy Kruger and Darth Vader as additional G.I. Joe team members. And again, the figure is real – this isn’t some sort of Robot Chicken mash up.

The custom figures are available now from Old Colony Hobbies and are newly made to resemble the classic 1970s and 1980s figures and packaging that many Gen X-ers and Gen Y-ers grew up with. While there were once Indy and Vader figures in the past, many of these custom figures – again custom ­– are from films that never had tie-ins back in the day.

Modern day toy companies such as Todd McFarlene Productions might not have much of a problem producing Spawn and Halo figures. But back in the day, no one would have dared create The Road Warrior, Dawn of the Dead and Taxi Driver playsets or other such merchandise – which is a shame considering how cool a Travis “you talkin’ to me” Bickle figure could have been at the time.

These new toys aren’t really meant to be played with, or even taken out of the packaging. Rather, they are meant to be sold as a faux collectible. These could make excellent accessories for a home theater – or better still a gift for the holidays. And who says the guys at Robot Chicken should have all the fun playing with action figures?